In an article from The Raw Story, an online news site, they host an article about a Republican Representative who claimed that in a court case of an 11 year old girl gang raped by 18 men, it was “because she was dressed like a 21-year-old prostitute.”
Read the whole article here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/16/republican-lawmaker-blames-11-year-old-victim-of-alleged-gang-rape/
It’s so disappointing to me that even to this day, even high end officials can find it in themselves to blame the victim in these cases, not the actual criminals. I think the only thing that makes this story any worse is the fact that the article quotes The Associated Press when it mentions how the boys charged have many people backing them, not because they don’t believe the boys committed the crime, but because “they blamed the girl for the way she dressed or claimed she must have lied about her age.”
Really? Really? I just don’t have words to describe how outraged I am at these people. I have never seen an 11 year old pull of a 21 year old look very well, but let’s say yeah, sure she did it. What makes any part of that okay to still gang rape her by 18, I repeat 18, men? Or how about the fact everyone claims she “dressed like a 21-year old prostitute”? Last time I checked, engaging in sexual activities with a prostitute is still illegal in most places. Nothing about this story is, or should be, okay.
This article reminds me of an advertising campaign I came across in 2008. The ads were of little girls photo-shopped onto overly sexualized women's bodies. They had writing in the ads that said things like “just because she has the body, doesn’t mean she has the brain,” or “if you see a child as anything more it’s wrong.” Now I give the company that made these some credit for at least trying to raise awareness and the ads did get lots of attention, so much so they in fact got pulled. However, I believe they did the advertising in the wrong way. They still played up the sexual aspect of the ads, which only encourages and distracts from their message, 'cause really who takes time to pay attention to the words in these ads? On a personal note, they’re also really freakin’ creepy. They also didn’t make a single ad about boys. I know that would have been harder to pull off, but it still encourages that stereotype that only girls are raped. There needs to be more awareness out there for males also.
See the ads and the story here: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/02/08/hypersexualizing-little-girls-so-as-to-discourage-hypersexualizing-little-girls/
It’s just so disheartening humanity to see that people still promote this idea that it’s the woman’s/girl’s fault because if the way she looks or dresses. On the upside, it’s reporters like Lisa Wade and David Edwards that are helping spread this message of change and awareness to those of us that don’t believe it’s the child’s fault. Keep spreading the message guys. The more we encourage reporting like this, the more hope there is for the victims involved.
R.I.S.E. Together!
-Rindi
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